Car door operating structure

ABSTRACT

Railway car side door operating structure comprises a rack extending lengthwise of and secured to the car side wall, and a pinion journaled on the door or on a housing connected to the door and movable therewith, and means for rotating the pinion to move the door along the rack between closed and open positions.

United States Patent [191 Bollinger, Sr.

CAR DOOR OPERATING STRUCTURE Luther L. Bollinger, Sr., Reading, Pa.

Assignee: Hennessy Products, Incorporated,

Chambersburg, Pa.

Filed: Dec. 14, 1973 App]. No.: 425,176

Related US. Application Data Inventor:

Continuation of Ser. No. 276,671, July 31, 1972,

abandoned.

US. Cl 49/362; 49/219 Int. Cl E05f 11/34 Field of Search 49/209, 216,219, 358-362 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Freeman 49/362 X 1May 20, 1975 1,575,086 3/1926 Ashleman et a1. 49/362 3,255,714 6/19663,257,756 6/1966 3,468,062 9/1969 3,636,658 1/1972 3,775,906 12/19733,796,007 3/1974 Primary Examiner-J. Karl Bell Attorney, Agent, orFirm-Bedell and Burgess [5 7] ABSTRACT Railway car side door operatingstructure comprises a rack extending lengthwise of and secured to thecar side wall, and a pinion journaled on the door or on a housingconnected to the door and movable therewith, and means for rotating thepinion to move the door along the rack between closed and openpositions.

3 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures CAR DOOR OPERATING STRUCTURE This is acontinuation of application Ser. No. 276,671, filed July 31, 1972 andnow abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention facilitates the use of a widerside door than possible with previous door moving rack and pinionmechanisms, such as shown for example in Custer U.S. Pat. No. 3,468,062in which the pinion is mounted on the car wall and engages a rackslidable with the door. The present mechanism is a better mechanicalarrangement for railway cars, since it avoids the safety hazard of amovable rack vibrating and loosening and enables a workman to remainadjacent to the door throughout the door opening and closing operations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view of a railwayhouse car embodying the invention as applied to a plug door.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view ofaportion of the car side shown in FIG. 1.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are horizontal sections along line 33 of FIG. 2 and shownthe mechanism in door-closed and door-open positions respectively.

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view along line 55 of FIG. 4 showing thepinion drive mechanism.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view showing application ofthe invention to an outside hung sliding car door.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The car side wall 1 has a door opening normallyclosed by a sliding door 3 mounted on a track 5 by roI lers journaled inhousings 7 and shiftable transversely of the car wall by lever handles 9on upright shafts 10 as commonly used with plug doors.

A horizontal rack 12 is secured to the door by bolts or rivets l4 andextends from the rear end of the door toward the adjacent end of the carfor a distance approximately the width of the door. Rack 12 comprises aflat bar toothed along its lower edge and having a smooth upper edge. Ahousing 16 overlies the rack and is slidable on the smooth upper surfacerack (FIG. 5) and is attached to the rear portion of the door by aconnecting linkage, including a clevis bar 18 rigidly se cured tohousing 16, and links 19 and 20, which accommodates movement of the doortransversely of the car wall into and out of the door opening. Journaledin housing 16 is a hand-wheel 22 and a plurality of reduction gears 24,26, 27 and a pair of driver pinions 28 which underlie and mesh with theteeth of rack 12 and balance the forces applied to the rack and improvethe power drive.

Upon rotation of handwheel 22 in the direction of arrow A, housing 16,linkage 18, 19, 20 and door 3 are moved to the right lengthwise of thecar in front of the rack to expose the door opening. Reverse movement ofthe handwheel will move the door to the left to close the opening.

In FIG. 6, the numeral 30 denotes the rear framing member of anoutside-hung sliding door, to which clevis bar 18 is pivotally secureddirectly, without the interposition of links 19 and 20. The spark sealportion 31 of the rear framing member is notched about 3% inches at 32to receive the rack when the door is slid to open position. Spacers 34hold the rack from the car side which is stiffened by the rack. The rackis not attached to the door and is connected to the door only throughthe gearing.

The details of the structure may be varied substantially withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention and the exclusive use ofthose modifications coming within the scope of the claims iscontemplated.

I claim:

I. In a railway car, a side wall with a door opening, a door movablealong said wall to overlie or to expose said opening, an elongated rackextending lengthwise of said wall and secured thereto, said rack havingteeth along its lower edge and a smooth upper edge, a housing offsetfrom said door lengthwise of the car and slidable along the upper edgeof said rack, link means forming the sole connection between saidhousing and said door whereby they move together lengthwise of the car,a first pinion journaled in said housing and engaging the toothed loweredge of said rack, means for manually rotating said pinion to move saiddoor along said rack, and a second pinion journaled in said housing andengaging the toothed lower edge of said rack, said second pinion beingspaced longitudinally of said rack from said first pinion whereby tooppose tilting of said housing about a transverse axis and itsconsequent binding on said rack.

2. A railway car as described in claim 1 in which said link meanscomprises an elongated link which pivots transversely of the wall anddoor and accommodates movement of the latter transversely of the wallinto and out of the door opening.

3. A railway car as described in claim I in which the housing includesreduction gearing between the pinion and its rotating means.

1. In a railway car, a side wall with a door opening, a door movable along said wall to overlie or to expose said opening, an elongated rack extending lengthwise of said wall and secured thereto, said rack having teeth along its lower edge and a smooth upper edge, a housing offset from said door lengthwise of the car and slidable along the upper edge of said rack, link means forming the sole connection between said housing and said door whereby they move together lengthwise of the car, a first pinion journaled in said housing and engaging the toothed lower edge of said rack, means for manually rotating said pinion to move said door along said rack, and a second pinion journaled in said housing and engaging the toothed lower edge of said rack, said second pinion being spaced longitudinally of said rack from said first pinion whereby to oppose tilting of said housing about a transverse axis and its consequent binding on said rack.
 2. A railway car as described in claim 1 in which said link means comprises an elongated link which pivots transversely of the wall and door and accommodates movement of the latter transversely of the wall into and out of the door opening.
 3. A railway car as described in claim 1 in which the housing includes reduction gearing between the pinion and its rotating means. 